The Blog

[Update] Personal

I wanted to avoid posting anything personal here at all costs, but it has been so long since the last update I felt I need to explain the current state of things so that people do not misunderstand that the project is dead. It is quite far from it. I am currently working on getting forward kinematics running smoothly. This is something I have already implemented in past engines so it is nothing new for me, and I was not heavily motivated to do it, which is why I put it off for so long. Then when I realized I needed to rewrite one part my motivation died entirely for about 2 weeks. But it already picked up again and I finished that rewrite and my motivation is back to normal. That was a minor hiccup, and not really the main issue now.

The main issue now is related to 2 things. One is an exciting announcement and one is more on a personal note.

The announcement is that I am writing a book for Addison-Wesley Professional related to advanced game architecture for iOS with OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenGL ES 3.0. It should be coming out next year in time for Christmas.  Hopefully this is exciting news for some of you.  I plan to go in-depth into optimizations helpful for high-performance 3D iOS games while presenting concepts and code that are largely applicable across many platforms.  It is part of the same series as Learning iOS Game Programming: A Hands-On Guide to Building Your First iPhone Game by Michael Daley and Learning OpenGL ES for iOS: A Hands-on Guide to Modern 3D Graphics Programming by Erik M. Buck and is meant to take readers of those books on to a more advanced level in game development for iOS.

This is part of the reason why my development on the engine has slowed, although I will certainly be able to find plenty of time to continue the engine soon.

Some might be aware that I maintain 2 jobs: Full-time game programming and part-time acting on Japanese TV and movies.  But recently, for some reason, acting has just suddenly picked up so much that it is becoming more full-time than part-time.  In the last 2 weeks I have done shoots for 4 TV dramas.  Normally acting jobs start very early and end somewhat late, so that when I get home I can only plop into bed and get as much sleep as I can before the next early-morning job.  I just got back from a job in which I was the main character.  I left at 5:00 AM Saturday morning and got home at 2:30 AM Sunday morning.  These jobs are long and tiring, and obviously leave me with little time for coding or writing.  I have been acting for a while but the jobs were not so often that it interfered with anything else.  Just once every 2 months or so.  But recently there has been a huge rush in the jobs, consuming not only the entirety of my spare time but also part of my full-time job.  I don’t know why the sudden rush of acting jobs, but I believe it is temporary.  It should get back to normal soon and leave me with more time to work on the engine.

 

 

L. Spiro

About L. Spiro

L. Spiro is a professional actor, programmer, and artist, with a bit of dabbling in music. || [Senior Core Tech Engineer]/[Motion Capture] at Deep Silver Dambuster Studios on: * Homefront: The Revolution * UNANNOUNCED || [Senior Graphics Programmer]/[Motion Capture] at Square Enix on: * Luminous Studio engine * Final Fantasy XV || [R&D Programmer] at tri-Ace on: * Phantasy Star Nova * Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness * Silent Scope: Bone Eater * Danball Senki W || [Programmer] on: * Leisure Suit Larry: Beach Volley * Ghost Recon 2 Online * HOT PXL * 187 Ride or Die * Ready Steady Cook * Tennis Elbow || L. Spiro is currently a GPU performance engineer at Apple Inc. || Hyper-realism (pencil & paper): https://www.deviantart.com/l-spiro/gallery/4844241/Realism || Music (live-played classical piano, remixes, and original compositions): https://soundcloud.com/l-spiro/

7 Awesome Comments So Far

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  1. Spencer Cagan
    December 18, 2012 at 4:23 AM #

    Actually, I’m just here to congratulate you on both the book deal and the acting jobs. This is quite a feat. You are in demand. Keep up the great work.

    • L. Spiro
      December 19, 2012 at 8:19 AM #

      Thank you.
      I just feel that life is meant to be lived. You only get one chance, so do everything in it that you ever dreamed of doing.

      L. Spiro

  2. Alphonso T.
    January 3, 2013 at 7:54 PM #

    Very good news bro. Long time no hear. Hope all is well and may your book see much success.

  3. Fouf
    January 11, 2013 at 6:26 AM #

    Glad to hear that work is still being done on the engine, and best of luck to you on managing your time with two jobs!

  4. Greg
    March 18, 2013 at 2:13 PM #

    Good to hear man, also, you got any links to some of these acting gigs you’ve been on? I’d like to see some of them :)

    • L. Spiro
      March 18, 2013 at 4:14 PM #

      When something is posted online about SPEC the movie I will post that.
      Or when they finally air the episode of Unbelievable in which I am the main character.

      L. Spiro

  5. Bryan Johnson
    June 17, 2013 at 10:12 PM #

    I’ve read a couple of your articles, good reads. And thumbs up to more girls in the games industry on the tech side. It’s physically exhausting for my eyeballs to look at 99% dudes. =D

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